A lot of modern tabletop games have some sort of digital component, whether it’s completely integrated into gameplay, or things such as complementary apps to enhance the gameplay experience.
New players might wonder: Are there such apps for Warhammer 40K, and in that case, what are those apps?
One of the most useful apps is BattleScribe. BattleScribe is an Army List Creator for 40K. With this app, you can create army lists for your Warhammer games. There are also validation functions regarding army selection and point limits. It’s a great app for new players and veterans. Another great app is the Hobby Color Converter, which is great for comparing and selecting paint.
Now that you know two of the most used apps for Warhammer 40K, read more to find out about other great apps that you can use to greatly enhance your gaming experience.
1. Battlescribe
As I mentioned previously, Battlescribe is one of the best and most popular applications for Warhammer 40K. It’s also useful for other TTRPGs where you want to build armies and keep track of armies.
The app is just really nice to have if you’re new, and not sure how to build your army properly. The app will keep you on track and point out errors with your army list.
It’s free, too, which is always nice. The only “negative” aspect of the app is a somewhat slow update rate at times. I would still say that the app is essential for a beginner player, as it is such a big help when you’re first starting out with playing 40K.
2. ITC Battles App
Another great app for beginners and veterans alike, this app helps you keep track of the score, plus providing reference of rules. You can also submit results from brackets straight to BCP, which is nice.
Instead of keeping time manually, you can use the timer in the app. This helps a lot in my opinion, I have enough to carry around as it is when going to a session of 40K.
Finally, the app can also provide different stats, such as win percentage, for your convenience. The app is in general just a really nice quality-of-life app that I recommend to all beginners of 40K.
3. Wahapedia
Wahapedia isn’t an app per se, but it’s an amazing resource nonetheless. It’s an internet wiki-style page on Warhammer stuff, which can really help beginner and intermediate players get through the incredible amount of information that you need to process when playing the game.
If you want to look up information really quickly about units, armies, or factions, just type in the keyword you want to read about plus Wahapedia into Google, and you should find that information on the website.
Of course, you can also look up information on other players’ armies and factions as well, if you want to gain some insight into their strengths and weaknesses. Another cool thing about this website is that it’s run by one guy.
See the website as a mini-substitute for a codex, although there’s no replacing that. As I mentioned before, however, you can find codex-related info in there and it can sometimes be faster to look that up on Wahapedia.
4. The Official GW Warhammer App
This app came out to a lot of criticism, as it was completely unfinished and furthermore lacked fundamental functions. However, the app has improved somewhat since its release.
In the app, you get access to core rules, which means that new players can learn the game easier. The free version of the app restricts a lot of functions, however, and makes it not that useful.
You can redeem the code on your physical codex, which lets you access it in the app. That’s really nice and is something that only an official GW app could do. It restricts the army building whenever you don’t have a certain codex, however, which has consequences for the army builder.
You can’t theorize and build armies in the app for factions you haven’t redeemed the codex for. This is a disappointing feature since BattleScribe lets you do that for free.
Hopefully, the app gets more love over time. GW has a large team with a bunch of resources and all the licensing, so you would think that it shouldn’t be that hard to design an app that isn’t inferior to free apps, made by a couple of people.
5. Mathhammer
Mathhammer is an expression 40K players throw around. It means using statistics to try to figure out outcomes and effectiveness when fighting. It’s not an exact science, of course, rather it’s an attempt to make use of odds to turn the tide of battle in your favor.
Mathhammer is also an app that lets you do this easier. For example, it lets you simulate a boatload of dice throws and then shows you a statistical analysis for it. All you need to do is put in a unit that attacks another unit, and the app will give you an analysis of it.
This might be overkill for a lot of players, and that’s understandable. At least, you now know that the option is there and if it might be something for you.
6. Hobby Color Converter
The hobby color converter doesn’t have anything to do with gameplay, but model paint. The app lets you find color equivalences across different brands. The app includes a massive database of different colors, with which you can locate different colors.
You can also point your phone camera at say a model, and the app will look up the color for you in the database. If a color that you want to paint in is unavailable, simply look up an equivalent color in this app.
It’s just an amazing quality-of-life app for looking up model paint for 40K. The creator of the app is also great at updating, fixing bugs, and adding content.
7. Reddit
You probably already know what Reddit is. The thing is, it’s arguably one of the best resources for 40K. This goes for the purposes of learning, asking questions, and making choices, simply by the virtue of having a ton of other experienced players weigh in.
It’s also a great way to invest yourself in the game, to get to know a community of people sharing the same interests that you have. I’m not a massive fan of Reddit for other purposes than TTRPGs, but it’s certainly useful for that.